World Politics Fall 2016

PART V

This section of our course is devoted to the problems of the NATION-STATE in  an era of GLOBALIZATION.

Some people have the idea that an entirely new era of “globalization” is upon us.  I am uncomfortable with the concept because it is so vague.  If we define globalization in terms of a massive expansion in contacts among peoples and an explosion in new technologies, I’m afraid that Genghis Khan (1162-1227 AD) and Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) would be sorry to be excluded from this category.  To avoid making the concept go too far, I will merely focus on a few contemporary ways in which they world has become, as they say, “a smaller place.”  To do this, I will debunk a few popular mythologies about where we are and where we are going.

37. LECTURE: Monday, November 28

Myth #1:   “The spread of global liberalism is rational”

Assumption:   We tend to associate the idea of “globalization” with the  spread of our own values.  It’s sheer mythology to imagine that these values are uniformly appropriate for the rest of the world.

Assignments:  So, is globalization good or bad?  Or is this a nonsensical question?

Globalization and the Mythology of Coca-Cola   WATCH

Scruton,  The West and the Rest, ch. 4.

Benjamin Barber, “Jihad vs. McWorld” PRINT AND READ

John Rapley: “The New Middle Ages,” Foreign Affairs (May-June 2006)  At JSTOR, PRINT AND READ

 

38. LECTURE:  Wednesday, November 30

Myth #2:  “Global Terrorism is irrational.”

Reflections on terrorism:  My bias for realism

Sanche de Gramont, “The Transformation of Moral Idealism into Violent Revolution” PRINT AND READ

Dale Eickelman: “The public sphere, the Arab ‘Street’, and the Middle East’s Democracy Deficit”: HERE

Osama bin Laden: “Transcript of Speech,” Al Jazeera.com, Nov. 1, 2004 READ

“The French Colonialist’s Global Comeuppance,” Foreign Policy, January 2015 PRINT AND READ

39. DISCUSSION SECTION:  Friday, December 2  

Paragraph Assignment:  “Is it inevitable that we will live in the “age of rage” (I think this is my term, but see Barber) or is it possible to find a way out (see Fukuyama)?”

For this discussion, read (only) the Introduction and Sections 3 and 4 of this article BEFORE today’s meeting: Francis Fukuyama: “End of History”  PRINT AND READ

Timothy Stanley and Alexander Lee, “It’s still not the end of history” PRINT AND READ

 

40. LECTURE:  Monday, Deember 5

Reflections on liberal democracy:  My bias for hope

Today’s Assumption: It’s hard to be optimistic about the chances for global liberalism, but it’s reasonable to be hopeful.

Assignments:

Samuel Huntington: “Democracy’s Third Wave,”  Journal of Democracy, Spring 1991. See JSTOR at PRINT AND READ

Fareed Zakaria, “The Rise of Illiberal Democracy,” Foreign Affairs:  PRINT AND READ

Knowledge@Wharton, “Lew Gerstner’s turnaround tales at IBM,” READ

 

Recommended (if you have time) Fareed Zakaria, “The Rise of Illiberal Democracy,” Foreign Affairs:  READ

 

41. LECTURE:  Wednesday, December 7

Myth #3:  “We are the end of history”

Today’s assumption:  The world is not ours to control.  But we can still do some things to make it better.  My bias for perspective

Read these short essays in sequence and ask yourself whether each will lead us in the right direction.

Stuart Jeffries, “Welcome to the new age of uncertainty”:  READ

Kurt Andersen, “The end of the world as they know it”  READ

Erica Goode, “Is humanity getting better?”  READ

Kelly J. Baker, “Why I remain hopeful,” Chronicle of Higher Education  READ

Alan Weisman, “The World Without Us” WATCH